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Pet dogs synchronize their walking pace with that of their owners in open outdoor areas

Animal Cognition volume 21, pages 219–226 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

Affiliation between interacting partners is associated with a high level of behavioural synchronization in many species. Pet dogs are known to share strong affiliative bonds with their owners and to synchronize their behaviour with them when moving freely indoors. Surprisingly, outdoor dog–human interspecific synchronization has seldom been investigated. We therefore explored whether, when allowed to move freely in a familiar outdoor space, dogs synchronize their behaviour with their owners’ movements. We found that dogs visibly synchronized both their location (staying in close proximity) and their activity (moving when their owner moved, and at the same pace, and standing still when their owner stood still) with those of their owners. By demonstrating that owners act as attractors for their dogs in an outdoor space, the present study contributes new data to the understanding of interspecific behavioural synchronization.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Cecile Betremieux for the reliability coding. We also thank the owners who volunteered for the study. This work was funded by the National Association for Research and Technology, the Aide aux Vieux Animaux (AVA) association, the National Centre for Scientific Research, and Aix-Marseille University.

Data availability statement

Data are available on Open Science Framework at the following address: https://osf.io/fvwam/?view_only=26d195c0dff24f29bc811671aba4b218.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cognitive Psychology Laboratory (UMR 7290), Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, Pôle 3C, 3 Place Victor Hugo, CS 80249, Bât. 9, Case D, 13331, Marseille Cedex 03, France

    Charlotte Duranton & Florence Gaunet

  2. AVA Association, Cuy-Saint-Fiacre, France

    Charlotte Duranton & Thierry Bedossa

  3. Alfort National Veterinary School, Maisons-Alfort, France

    Thierry Bedossa

Authors
  1. Charlotte Duranton
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  2. Thierry Bedossa
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  3. Florence Gaunet
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Charlotte Duranton.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

As the present study was only observational, all applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. Also, all procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

All dogs owners signed an informed consent before participating in the study.

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Duranton, C., Bedossa, T. & Gaunet, F. Pet dogs synchronize their walking pace with that of their owners in open outdoor areas. Anim Cogn 21, 219–226 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-017-1155-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-017-1155-x

Keywords

  • Dog–human synchronization
  • Location synchrony
  • Activity synchrony
  • Interspecific synchronization
  • Pet dogs